Design of collimator in the radial piercing beam port of Kartini reactor for boron neutron capture therapy

Studies were carried out to design a collimator which results in epithermal neutron beam for in vivo experiment of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) at the Kartini Research Reactor by means of Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) codes. Reactor within 100 kW of thermal power was used as the neutron source. All materials used were varied in size, according to the value of mean free path for each material. MCNP simulations indicated that by using 5 cm thick of Ni (95%) as collimator wall, 15 cm thick of Al as moderator, 1 cm thick of Pb as γ-ray shielding, 1.5 cm thick of Boral as additional material, with 2 cm aperture diameter, epithermal neutron beam with maximum flux of 5.03 x 10⁸ n.cm^-2.s^-1 could be produced. The beam has minimum fast neutron and γ-ray components of, respectively, 2.17 x 10^-13Gy.cm².n^-1 and 1.16 x 10^-13 Gy.cm².n^-l, minimum thermal neutron per epithermal neutron ratio of 0.12, and maximum directionality of 0.835 . It did not fully pass the IAEA's criteria, since the epithermal neutron flux was below the recommended value, 1.0 x 10⁹ n.cm^-2.s^-l. Nonetheless, it was still usable with epithermal neutron flux exceeding 5.0 x 10⁸ n.cm^-2.s^-1 and fast neutron flux close to 2 x 10^-13 Gy.cm².n^-1 it is still feasible for BNCT in vivo experiment. (author)